The Harry Potter Tarot
by Larner
Summary: Written for the There-and-Back-Again Community Challenge to write to the archetypes of the Tarot Deck. For Alan, Cindy, and Nina. Beta by RiverOtter.


**The Harry Potter Tarot**

1. The Fool

Ron Weasley glared after his friend Harry, still smarting that Harry wouldn't tell him how on earth he'd managed to breach the age line around the Goblet of Fire. It just wasn't right that Harry should be entered into the Tri-Wizard Tournament and not Ron, too. It wasn't as if other underaged wizards hadn't tried--look at George and Fred and their beards!

But in the depths of his heart Ron knew that Harry wasn't lying--that he was certain that this was yet another ploy designed to see him both publicly humiliated and in the end perhaps killed! It was easier, a secret part of Ron's being told him, to be angry than to be terrified for his best friend's safety.

2. The Magician

Ron looked with disbelief at the paper cover Hermione had carefully worked over the latest Gilderoy Lockheart book they were to be reading for Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was decorated with a huge purple heart with a dramatic impression of lace about it. "You must be joking, Hermione!" he spluttered. "You are still impressed by that old fraud? I can't believe you believe a word he writes--I mean, nobody could do everything he says he's done, except perhaps Dumbledore. But then Dumbledore's quite mad--a genius, but barking."

Flushing, Hermione flounced off toward the library.

3. The High Priestess

"All right, class, you will now take out your Transfiguration books and open them to page 213. Miss Granger, will you begin by explaining the process shown in the illustration at the top of the page?"

Ron found the page and examined the picture. Apparently today they were to be turning pincushions into hedgehogs. This should be interesting, as they'd already worked on its opposite.

Maybe if he took the longer pins first and set them into a whiskery sort of pattern, and the shorter ones to represent the spines on the hedgehog's back.... That was what Hermione was doing first, and following her lead tended to give him better results, he found, than muddling around trying to work it out for himself.

4. The Empress

"Oh, there you are Harry! Come right in and sit down at the table. I'll cook you up a plate of sausages and mash. A cup of tea? Ron, dear, be a darling and carry Harry's things up to your room--I have the cot set up for him already. You know, Harry, you are looking far too peaked. Are you certain that your aunt and uncle are feeding you enough?"

Ron grinned to himself as he followed the twins up the rickety stairs. It was like he had six brothers and a sister now. He was so glad his mother had taken to his best friend from school.

5. The Emperor

"You know, you're so lucky to have your dad. He is so smart! Okay--I realize that collecting things like plug ends and batteries and tinkering about with Muggle things like cars isn't any too bright, maybe. And, yes, he comes off as eccentric. But, that's not the point of it, Ron. You see, he _really_ knows his stuff when it comes to defensive magic and things like that, and he recognizes when things are getting dodgy. I _trust_ him, Ron, more than just about any other wizard I know other than Professor Dumbledore."

Ron could feel his ears going pink from the praise Harry was heaping on his dad. Just maybe his father was more than the lovable near-failure that the Ministry saw him as....

6. When Archetypes Meet--Emperor and Magician

Arthur Weasley, his youngest son decided, was at his most impressive when he responded to Gilderoy Lockheart. There was no question that his mum had gone barkers over the famous wizard writer and adventurer; but when Ron started forward to drag Molly Weasley out of Flourish and Blotts (_"We can come back and get those later, Mum, after the crowd has gone down and the Malfoys are gone,"_ he'd intended to say), his father had grasped his arm and shaken his head. "No," he'd whispered, "trying to tell her Lockheart's a fraud won't accomplish a thing--not now. Let him make a fool out of himself first, and she'll be all over him for his pretensions. I know your mother--she doesn't bear well with proven fools."

Ron wasn't surprised when his father proved right. "Imagine that--trying to work a memory wipe with a broken wand," she sniffed. "I always knew there was too much flash to him, the great git."

His dad just smiled at Ron over his mother's shoulder.

7. The Heirophant

"I hate him, Ron--I loathe him, and with all my heart," Harry muttered after Snape had again belittled Harry in Potions.

Ron agreed, of course. And even Hermione, who had perfect marks in all her other classes and could whip up a potion or handle a charm like nobody's business, looked after the Potions Master with resentment in her eyes and had been heard to mutter, "Greasy haired git!" under her breath on occasion.

But there was no question that for some reason that no one could understand, it appeared that Severus Snape had actually been protecting Harry all during their years at school. But it wasn't until after Snape was dead that anyone--other than Dumbledore, of course--understood why.

"Who'd of thought that he felt he had to for your mum's sake?" Ron asked Harry, after Harry told him what he'd seen in the Pensieve when it had been filled with Snape's last memory.

8. The Lovers

"Really Ron Weasley!" Grabbing up her bag and stuffing her books and hastily rolled parchment into it, Hermione stalked off toward the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

"You know what's wrong with you, Hermione?" Ron called after her. "Snape's right, you know--you _are_ an insufferable know-it-all at times!"

Ginny sighed, knowing that Hermione was digging her nails into the heel of her hand and counting to ten to keep from turning and casting a pustule charm at him. She glanced at Harry and noted that he had a mixed expression of frustration and amusement on his face. _I really must teach Hermione the Bat Bogie Hex,_ she thought as she returned her attention to her Charms paper.

9. The Chariot

Few folks saw it, but now and then Ron would catch a glimpse of the little blue Ford Anglia on the fringes of the Forbidden Forest. Neither he nor Harry had told anyone other than Hermione about the time the feral car had saved them from Aragog's family, back when everyone thought that Aragog was Slytherin's monster, and that Hagrid had somehow managed to open the Chamber of Secrets.

_I hope it's happy there, living in the forest,_ he thought. _I wonder--does it hang out with the unicorns?_

10. Justice

She'd been making school a living misery for almost all of the students at Hogwarts, and Ron was willing to believe that Dolores Umbrage was hated even by many of the Slytherins, not that they'd ever admit it, of course. She'd managed to offend all of the teachers, even Snape. And Ron had never dreamed that the day would come that he would pity the likes of Trelawny.

But it was Umbrage's hatred of those she judged as less than human that led to her undoing. As Ron watched her being carried away by the herd of centaurs he found himself thinking, _Now, there's justice for you!_

Too bad Dumbledore had felt honorbound to rescue her!

11. The Hermit

"Who lives there?" asked the first year student, pointing down the slope from the Castle toward the hut at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"Oh, that's Professor Hagrid's place," Ron answered carelessly. "He's also the gamekeeper and keeper of the keys as well as the teacher for the class on magical creatures."

"Is he married?"

Ron laughed at the thought. Hagrid, married? Perish the thought. "No, he lives alone--him and his boarhound, Fang. He's happiest that way."

Although there were hints he was courting, he admitted to himself, thinking of the headmistress for the students at Beau Baton.

12. The Wheel of Fortune

"What's it like, Harry?"

"What's what like, Ron?"

"Using the Pensieve."

Harry shuddered. "Not like anything else I've ever done. You feel as if you are falling down--down into the circle of the Pensieve, and sitting at the bottom of the bowl, watching things happen without being able to affect them. But it's like you're worse than a ghost--the people there are all busy, but can't see, hear, or feel you at all."

Now it was Ron's turn to shiver. "I don't think I'd like that, either."

Harry gave a small nod of agreement before changing the subject.

"What do you think they'll have for lunch?"

13. When Archetypes Fight--Emperor vs. Empress

"I tell you, Arthur Weasley, your obsession with Muggle ways will kill you one day! You should have consulted Harry about this before you agreed to it--he knows about Muggle medicine, after all."

"Perhaps I ought to have, Molly darling, but he wasn't here to ask. And besides, stitches work quite well for ordinary cuts and all, as well as any charm we have."

"But that awful snake of He-who-must-not-be-named, any bite it might give you is anything but an ordinary cut, as you should bloody well know!"

_Mum must be terribly upset,_ thought a surprised Ron. _She never swears!_

14. Strength

"Luna's rather strange, and she _does_ believe in gnargles and that the Ministry tortures goblins and all. But she would never support Voldemort, never in a million years!"

Ron had to agree that this was true. He found Luna Lovegood decidedly odd, but in the end she was good people. And in spite of her often unexplainable beliefs and foibles she saw to the heart of things and would do anything she could to counter the influence of He-who-must-not-be-named. He wished they could get a dozen more like her in the D.A. She was worth ten of some of the others!

15. The Hanged Man

Harry could barely bring himself to talk about his experiences in the maze and then the graveyard where he'd seen the Dark Lord reborn. Finally he commented, "It was just too awful, Ron! One moment I'm saving Cedric, and then it looked as if I were going to lose to him, but then he decided that we should take the cup together so it would be a joint win for Hogwarts. And then----"

He broke down in tears, burying his face in his hands.

"And then," he finally managed, "then he was dead, killed by Voldemort as if he were a fly on the windowsill. As if he were just something to be blasted out of his way so Voldemort could get to me! It's not right! I shouldn't have won!

"But," he added, "if I hadn't taken the cup with him, Voldemort would still have killed him--I know it!"

16. Death

"And you thought maybe you were at King's Cross?" Ron asked.

"Well, it looked like it, but cleaner, you know. All white."

"Sounds weird," Ron said admiringly. "And you could have stayed?"

Harry nodded. "Apparently I could have. But at least I had a choice. Not like Tom Riddle." He sighed. "It was awful to see him like that. Like a helpless baby, lying under that bench. You could tell Dumbledore felt sorry for him, but that there was nothing he could do. I think of him possibly having to remain there like that, through all eternity...." He shuddered. "I'd rather be fully dead than that."

Ron had to agree.

17. Temperance

"Mr. Weasley, pay attention. Look at your plate--it still has hindquarters!"

Ron sighed as he looked back at his project. He'd been hoping to turn his cat into a Sheffield plate with a tower pattern similar to the one of his mother's he'd broken over his last holiday. However, this plate still had eyes as well as legs, and was spitting at him. Those stripes, however, did appear to be shaping up properly into the towers, at least.

He remembered his first attempt at tranfiguring a mouse into a teacup, how his had ended up with a tail. He eyed Professor McGonagall with admiration. She could transfigure into a cat. He'd never admit it to Hermione, but he considered Minerva McGonagall the most competent individual he knew.

18. The Devil

"When I watched Voldemort----"

"Harry! When will you stop using his name?"

Why did Harry insist on using the Dark Lord's name? He wasn't called _He-who-must-not-be-named_ for nothing, after all. It was said that in the old days he knew spells that listened for anyone using his name, and that he would have his Death Eaters target them. What if he started doing that again?

He said as much to Harry, but Harry just snorted. "Then he'd just reset the spells to listen for _He-who-must-not-be-named_ and send the Death Eaters after those people who use that instead. It's pointless, Ron."

Ron Weasley wasn't so certain.

19. The Tower

"I didn't have a good feeling about the Hog's Head from the first!" Ron whispered to Harry once they realized that they had been overheard and Umbrage alerted to the new club.

Harry shook his head in disgust. "But you and Hermione were the ones who suggested we have the first meeting there to begin with!" he objected. "Why can't you make up your mind?"

Ron felt insulted. It wasn't his fault--truly it wasn't! He'd have to talk to Fred and George, as they were the ones who'd suggested the Hog's Head to begin with.

But the day they discovered Albus Dumbledore's brother was the innkeeper for the inn and he saved them from the Death Eaters, Ron found he was truly glad of the place after all.

20. When Archetypes Love: Emperor and Chariot

"Arthur Weasley--what have you been doing out there in the shed? And what's that on your best sweater!"

"I'm working on a project, Molly. Nothing to worry about."

Molly Weasley shook her head. "And what kind of Muggle contraption do you have out there this time? I swear, Arthur, you will be in trouble with the Ministry if you keep this up!"

Ron watched his father hurry up the stairs. He knew that Dad had a little blue Muggle car out there, and that his father dearly loved tinkering with it. And he had to admit he was eager to see just what his father would end up doing with the thing.

"I can't wait to show Harry," he murmured to himself as he washed his hands and began to set the table.

21. The Star

Sirius Black was dead! It was a hard enough fact for Ron to accept, but he knew it was worse for Harry. Sirius had been the closest to a real family that Harry could remember--far better than those awful Dursleys! Just the thought of Sirius had been enough to help Harry face having to spend most of the summers with his aunt and uncle. Like the star for which he'd been named, Sirius had shone brightly in Harry's heart, and his loss had left Harry's world more shadowed.

"As if," Hermione commented quietly to him, "Voldemort didn't provide darkness enough to Harry's world on his own.

Ron nodded his agreement.

22. The Moon

"Professor Lupin would have killed Sirius Black to protect you--that is, if Sirius had really meant to hurt you, of course," Ron assured Harry. "Now, that's real courage!"

"But they were friends," Harry pointed out. "What took courage was for him to admit to us that he's a werewolf. Most people wouldn't understand at all. Once Snape let that be known lots of parents threatened to take their kids out of Hogwarts if he stayed on. I mean, if he was going to go crazy and bite someone, he would have done it before now at the end of the year."

Ron had to agree that Harry was right.

23. The Sun

Ron was still awestruck, looking at Harry. "But you were dead!" he kept saying.

Harry shrugged uncomfortably. "But I was his last Horcrux and had the Resurrection Stone, and Riddle didn't even realize it. He had no idea of the power of the spell on the Stone, or how his spell would backfire on him when he attacked me." He shook his head. "I didn't know I could come back--I thought it was really over." His expression was haunted. "To learn I could come back was a shock. To see Dumbledore was a shock!" He shook his head, then smiled a gentle smile. "But I can be with Ginny now!" His smile became sly. "As long as her family agrees, of course."

Ron felt his jaw drop, and then began to laugh. "Like I'd object! Go ahead!"

24. Judgment

Harry Potter, the youngest individual ever to become an Auror, stood before the Wizengamot, totally ignoring the chained chair in which he'd seen others bound during his earlier visits to this chamber via the Pensieve. This time he was not there as a defendant--he was here to right a wrong!

"You had no right to expel Albus Dumbledore or to remove him as Chief of the Wizengamot!" he insisted. "And particularly not just because it suited the aims of the Minister of Magic. This body is supposed to be above the vagaries of mere politics."

The members of that august body looked to one another in discomfort, realizing he had the right of it.

25. The World

Harry hurried into Ginny's room, but stopped short at the sight of his young wife lying there with their son in her arms.

"It's a boy?" he asked.

She nodded. "Of course! What else, Harry?"

He came closer and looked down on the child, and ran his finger across the soft cheek, a smile spreading across his face. "He's beautiful--like you!"

Ginny laughed, the tiredness in her face fading away. "Well, considering his father I'd expect him to be short and skinny. His hair already is untidy!:

They laughed together for a moment, then turned their attention again to the baby. "A son!" he said with a quick glance up to meet her eyes. "And he'll need a strong name to live up to! Albus Severus--what do you think of that, Ginny?"

She smiled. "Yes, a strong name--a brave name! Very brave indeed." She brushed her fingers across the dark down on top of the child's head. "May you be as brave as your dad, and as the ones you're named after!"

And the world was remade that day.


End file.
